A: Why are you so negative about the Wehrmacht / Germany?

The youngest of them is almost 90. They probably can't goose step any more

This is an excellent video and really does clarify the difference in culture between the Anglo-sphere and the german-speaking world. I can relate to it fully having been raised by Austrian and German grandparents.

One of my cousins and his in fe wemtntuere fairly recently in traveling. When I'd been chatting with him, he made what I'd thought a quite interesting observation about that whole place. He said the whole country had an almost morbid, pervasive, funereal, charmel-house atmosphere, that was pretty much almost singularly palpable, as he'd described it. Now, I've never been there, one of my brothers was at one point, also some years ago. However, I can entirely understand his rather !metaphorical description. I've read and studied military history quite seriously for many years, esp since 1978 when I'd taken it under a really competent mil historian, the commander of my Army ROTC detachment, though I'd gone USAF OTS later on. I've looked at WW2 there, and in Asia, for a very, very long time. My uncle knew Eisenhower, was in his common unit, the 3118th Signal SVC Battalion or Group, was there when the Germans surrendered at the little red schoolhouse at Reims, Germany, and helped send the surrender telex, swiping a copy his sons, one of whom is my cousin, still have locked away in a safe deposit box. My wife's Dad led a minefield charge at the Battle of Nancy in France by the Moselle River, getting a Bronze Star, I've extensively looked into both their histories, as part of my interests. Asking why one would be negative about that whole topic is a total, complete, non sequiturs, like as in does not compute. That whole country went totally and completely crazy lost it, absolutely 100% bona fide psychotic, that was what led to all that happened there, as did Japan, as did Italy. Italy with Mussolini did things like what happened in Ethiopia that were certainly on the same par as the Nanking massacre, and what happened throughout Europe. However, what rendered both what Japan did, and Germany did, so esp hideous, was not merely the cold, calculated, wanton sadism of all of it, or the monsters who ran it all. It was esp hideous for the simple reason that, unfortunately, they were so abysmally good at it, if one could pardon the phrasing. I recall vividly a film I'd seen of a captured SS being interrogated by a US At!y major, who had a twisted look on his face, as if he could barely restrain himself from throttling that one, the imagery has long lingered in my memory quite evocatively. A film like Schindler's List aside, I've watched numerous YouTube videos of Allied troops, kicking, beating, pummeling German troops, as did prisoners in the camps. Being negative about all that happened is now, unfortunately, utterly ingrained in the collective human psyche, and will be, pretty much forever, there's nothing Germany or Japan can do about it, though Japan, with its Yasakuni shrine, has been far less forthcoming than Germany has been. Witness the whole story of comfort women in South Korea trying to get Japan to admit its atrocities. Watch a film on YoYube called The Relief of Belsen, which was quite good, and rather little known. Negative? No way out of that one, I'm afraid. Atrocity has been, and always be, part of war, not just back then, but perpetuating to present day, that's unavoidable. However, as to the video here, Germany! No way could that even remotely he viewed in any other fashion than negative. No way, no how, I've read horror stories of Allied troops having engaged in beating German personnel, one thing I'd esp read about, many times, in many places, was kneeing them in the tpgroin repeatedly, apparently, that was viewed as rather a preferred !method of getting their point across. History has basically !Ade its judgment about that whole story after 70 something years, I'm afraid, and pretty Mich nothing Germany is going to do is pretty much going to alter that, not, at bare minimum, for many, many more decades and/or centuries yet. There was a book written by the son of Hams Frank, who'd been the governor general of Poland, before he'd been eliminated after Nuremberg. Many reviewers of his book thought he'd apparently gone way, way overboard in expressing his positive loathing for the mere memories of his parents. I've watched him on YouTube, I've !want to get his book, I gather it was pretty vituperative, from what I've read and/or seen. I think that's pretty much going to be the norm there, for a really, really, long time to come. Negative? I'm afraid so, and nothing ipinnthat video is going to change pretty much any of it, its been acknowledged by that whole country, that's why they keep the camps as memorials, read the story of Sanit Maximilian Kolbe, who'd been martyred in Auschwitz, where the site of his martyrdom was visited by Pope John Paul Ii, I'd read an excellent treatise on him, and Rudolf Hoess, the kommandamt, the book was called Kolbe and the Kommandant, well worth reading to try to understand the stark differences in character involved. I hope this was at least of some interest, all the ideas are of course my own, I'm not expecting to be agreed with entirely, of course, I just thought I'd make those observations, for whatever they might be worth, look also at the story of IG Farben, and get a copy of the book The Arms of Krupp, by William Manchester, who'd also written American Caesar, about Gen MacAthur, just thought I'd mention that was all, and the two volume!e biography of the German monster by John Toland, as well as ThenRise and Fall of the Third Reich and The Nightmare Years, by William Shirer, as well, many thanks.